The invention generally relates to a method and apparatus for a combined fuel cell and hydrogen purification system.
A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that converts chemical energy produced by a reaction directly into electrical energy. For example, one type of fuel cell includes a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM), often called a proton exchange membrane, that permits only protons to pass between an anode and a cathode of the fuel cell. At the anode, diatomic hydrogen (a fuel) is reacted to produce protons that pass through the PEM. The electrons produced by this reaction travel through circuitry that is external to the fuel cell to form an electrical current. At the cathode, oxygen is reduced and reacts with the protons to form water. The anodic and cathodic reactions are described by the following equations:H2→2H++2e−  (1) at the anode of the cell, andO2+4H++4e−→2H2O   (2)at the cathode of the cell.
A typical fuel cell has a terminal voltage of up to about one volt DC. For purposes of producing much larger voltages, multiple fuel cells may be assembled together to form an arrangement called a fuel cell stack, an arrangement in which the fuel cells are electrically coupled together in series to form a larger DC voltage (a voltage near 100 volts DC, for example) and to provide more power.
The fuel cell stack may include flow field plates (graphite composite or metal plates, as examples) that are stacked one on top of the other. The plates may include various surface flow field channels and orifices to, as examples, route the reactants and products through the fuel cell stack. The flow field plates are generally molded, stamped or machined from materials including carbon composites, plastics and metal alloys. A PEM is sandwiched between each anode and cathode flow field plate. Electrically conductive gas diffusion layers (GDLs) may be located on each side of each PEM to act as a gas diffusion media and in some cases to provide a support for the fuel cell catalysts. In this manner, reactant gases from each side of the PEM may pass along the flow field channels and diffuse through the GDLs to reach the PEM. The GDL's generally comprise either a paper or cloth based on carbon fibers. The PEM and its adjacent pair of catalyst layers are often referred to as a membrane electrode assembly (MEA). An MEA sandwiched by adjacent GDL layers is often referred to as a membrane electrode unit (MEU), or also as an MEA. Common membrane materials include Nafion™, Gore Select™, sulphonated fluorocarbon polymers, and other materials such as polybenzimidazole (PBI) and polyether ether ketone. Various suitable catalyst formulations are also known in the art, and are generally platinum-based.
A fuel cell system may include a fuel processor that converts a hydrocarbon (natural gas or propane, as examples) into a fuel flow for the fuel cell stack. For a given output power of the fuel cell stack, the fuel flow to the stack must satisfy the appropriate stoichiometric ratios governed by the equations listed above. Thus, a controller of the fuel cell system may monitor the output power of the stack and based on the monitored output power, estimate the fuel flow to satisfy the appropriate stoichiometric ratios. In this manner, the controller regulates the fuel processor to produce this flow, and in response to the controller detecting a change in the output power, the controller estimates a new rate of fuel flow and controls the fuel processor accordingly.
The fuel cell system may provide power to a load, such as a load that is formed from residential appliances and electrical devices that may be selectively turned on and off to vary the power that is demanded by the load. Thus, the load may not be constant, but rather the power that is consumed by the load may vary over time and abruptly change in steps. For example, if the fuel cell system provides power to a house, different appliances/electrical devices of the house may be turned on and off at different times to cause the load to vary in a stepwise fashion over time. Fuel cell systems adapted to accommodate variable loads are sometimes referred to as “load following” systems.
Fuel cell systems generally include various sources of heat, such as from fuel processing systems, the fuel cell stack itself, exhaust gas oxidizers, etc. In particular, the exhaust from a fuel cell is generally oxidized to remove trace amounts of unreacted fuels before it is exhausted to ambient. Such exhaust is generally hot and saturated with water vapor from the fuel cell system and from combustion of combustible gas components in the exhaust. For a variety of reasons, it may be desirable to recover such heat from a fuel cell system. As examples of such systems in the prior art, the teachings of U.S. patent Ser. Nos. 09/728,227 and 09/727,921 are hereby incorporated by reference.
Hydrogen purification systems have also been used with fuel cell systems in various ways. For example, a hydrogen purification system can be used to filter a reformate stream to produce a pure hydrogen stream that can be stored or used by a fuel cell. Hydrogen purification systems have also been used to recover hydrogen from fuel cell system exhaust streams. In the context of this invention, a hydrogen purification system may also be referred to as a hydrogen separator, and in either case, such a system can refer to any of the various techniques known in the art for separating hydrogen from gas streams, including electrochemical separation and pressure swing adsorption systems. As examples of such systems in the prior art, the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 6,280,865, Ser. Nos. 10/214,022, 10/213,798, and 10/214,019 are hereby incorporated by reference.
There is a continuing need for fuel cell system designs and improvements to coordinate the integrated operation of systems including the foregoing.